 Advice from The Cup
“God, give me one shot and I'll break right through, I am starting to be brand new.” ------------------------------- O.A.R. NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Great movie, “Tin Cup.” I’ve long said that Kevin Costner’s only good roles are when he plays washed-up sports bums (with a notable exception coming in Clint Eastwood’s “A Perfect World”). There’s that scene where Roy McAvoy (Costner) is talking with Romeo (Cheech Marin) about attempting to qualify for the U.S. Open. McAvoy likes it because it’s not only the biggest tournament in the world, it’s the most democratic. Because it’s open. Anybody can qualify, anybody can win, anybody can be a legend.
It’s why I always have to watch that movie around this time of year (and the presence of Rene Russo at the apex of her hotness certainly doesn’t hurt). It represents the reason why we all watch college basketball in March.
Because anybody can win.
Even South Carolina.
The Gamecocks start the SEC tournament on Thursday knowing what they must do to clinch an NCAA tournament. They must win four games in four days, a not-impossible task considering the last two SEC tournament champions pulled it off.
USC’s middling history in the tournament is a factor, of course, as is the current team. The Gamecocks are coming to Nashville with, really, an eight-man squad. They will first have to play a team they just lost to at home on Senior Night despite that team not having one of its best players. Then, if they win, they get to play Kentucky, holder of the SEC Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, three first-team all-SEC picks, three all-freshman picks and a measly two losses all season.
But that chance is there. It has to be there. Likely takes a back seat to possible at this time of year.
I drove up here (for the second time in five days) thinking of some of the miracle teams I’ve seen accomplish what USC is hoping to accomplish. Most were in the ACC back before I knew the SEC had basketball, but all became legends.
Every year there’s one team that shocks the world and wins a conference tournament it has no business winning. That’s what makes this week, as the Cup said, so democratic.
Odds are that USC will go one-and-done. Darrin Horn may have pulled a Bill Foster, back when he was at Duke – pack a handkerchief for the tournament instead of a suitcase. The Gamecocks simply don’t match up well with Alabama and if they win that, there’s Kentucky, which is still not happy about that lost No. 1 ranking.
Yet, odds only count for so much in March. This time of year is about who wants it the most.
The Cup had a chance to win the Open, yet deliberately played himself out of contention because he wanted to prove he could make an impossible shot. That was a defining moment, he said, and when a defining moment comes along, you define the moment, or the moment defines you.
“I did not shrink from the challenge, I rose to it!,” he proclaims.
Good advice, from golf to basketball.
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Advice from The Cup
“God, give me one shot and I'll break right through, I am starting to be brand new.” ------------------------------- O.A.R. NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Great movie, “Tin Cup.” I’ve long said that Kevin Costner’s only good roles are when he plays washed-up sports bums (with a notable exception coming in Clint Eastwood’s “A Perfect World”). There’s that scene where Roy McAvoy (Costner) is talking with Romeo (Cheech Marin) about attempting to qualify for the U.S. Open. McAvoy likes it because it’s not only the biggest tournament in the world, it’s the most democratic. Because it’s open. Anybody can qualify, anybody can win, anybody can be a legend.
It’s why I always have to watch that movie around this time of year (and the presence of Rene Russo at the apex of her hotness certainly doesn’t hurt). It represents the reason why we all watch college basketball in March.
Because anybody can win.
Even South Carolina.
The Gamecocks start the SEC tournament on Thursday knowing what they must do to clinch an NCAA tournament. They must win four games in four days, a not-impossible task considering the last two SEC tournament champions pulled it off.
USC’s middling history in the tournament is a factor, of course, as is the current team. The Gamecocks are coming to Nashville with, really, an eight-man squad. They will first have to play a team they just lost to at home on Senior Night despite that team not having one of its best players. Then, if they win, they get to play Kentucky, holder of the SEC Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, three first-team all-SEC picks, three all-freshman picks and a measly two losses all season.
But that chance is there. It has to be there. Likely takes a back seat to possible at this time of year.
I drove up here (for the second time in five days) thinking of some of the miracle teams I’ve seen accomplish what USC is hoping to accomplish. Most were in the ACC back before I knew the SEC had basketball, but all became legends.
Every year there’s one team that shocks the world and wins a conference tournament it has no business winning. That’s what makes this week, as the Cup said, so democratic.
Odds are that USC will go one-and-done. Darrin Horn may have pulled a Bill Foster, back when he was at Duke – pack a handkerchief for the tournament instead of a suitcase. The Gamecocks simply don’t match up well with Alabama and if they win that, there’s Kentucky, which is still not happy about that lost No. 1 ranking.
Yet, odds only count for so much in March. This time of year is about who wants it the most.
The Cup had a chance to win the Open, yet deliberately played himself out of contention because he wanted to prove he could make an impossible shot. That was a defining moment, he said, and when a defining moment comes along, you define the moment, or the moment defines you.
“I did not shrink from the challenge, I rose to it!,” he proclaims.
Good advice, from golf to basketball.
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Last Call For Downeyball
“Never can say goodbye.” ------------ THE JACKSON 5 All of you need to stop what you’re doing, right now, and make plans to watch South Carolina and Alabama play tonight. Even if you have to stop reading this column, which would punish my ego more than my last stood-up date, you need to do it. Because you won’t get this chance again. Ever.
Tonight is Senior Night for five South Carolina Gamecocks, although one (Dominique Archie) may return for another. Archie and three of the other four (Brandis Raley-Ross, Evka Baniulis, Robert Wilder) are fine, fine young men, all of who are either graduated or on track to graduate in May and have represented this program with class and dignity.
They all deserve your respect and admiration.
The other one deserves your recognition as one of the best to ever wear the uniform.
Tonight is Devan Downey’s last home game. He may get another one in a postseason tournament, but as far as definites go, to again borrow from Michael Jackson, this is it.
Either watch it on TV or buy a ticket, in the process doing whatever you have to do to get to this game. A player like Downey will never be around again. Fact.
I wasn’t lucky enough to watch John Roche in his prime. Ditto Alex English. I got to watch BJ McKie play for three years, and he was something.
But I got to see Downey for three years here and three years at Chester High School, and even when he was a sophomore prep star with dreams taller than he could ever hope to be, I knew he was going to be the best I’ve ever seen.
Keep in mind, I got to cover Raymond Felton when he was in high school. I saw Ivory Latta light up some poor team for 70 points in one game. I grew up watching Christian Laettner, one of the biggest jerks of all time off the court but one of the biggest winners on it.
Downey is right there with them, if not better. The problem with those folks is they won championships and Downey will likely become one of those guys like Dan Marino – The Greatest to Never (Fill in the Blank), in this case play in the NCAA tournament.
Tonight is the last chance to see him perform moves that you’re going to wish you could see again next year and the year after and the year after. The stop-and-pop, fadeaway jumper and steal-and-coast should be written in Columbia’s basketball lexicon with a mug shot of Downey right beside them.
Odds are, we’ll be back at Colonial Life Arena in five years to watch Downey’s No. 2 raised to the rafters, where it will hang beside McKie’s No. 3, just like Downey said it would four years ago. When he called me to tell me he was coming to USC after his first season at Cincinnati, I mentioned he couldn’t wear No. 3, his high-school number, because it had just been retired.
“Really?,” he asked. “Guess I’ll have to put another one up there, then.”
I didn’t doubt it then and I sure don’t now. When he transferred, I told all of my colleagues that he was the real deal. He wouldn’t be like many USC transfers, coming in with great accolades only to flame out.
Then I sat back with one of my best smirks (and I’ve got lots of them) as he did exactly what I predicted.
I truly hope all of you have enjoyed watching him as much as I can. Even to sportswriters, who tattoo a code of objectivity across our shoulder blades, Downey was the kind of player who commanded awe and respect because of everything he could do, and the way he kept doing it.
I know that some of you swore off basketball when the season begin going downhill. I also know that some of you only have spare interest in the game because Jim Bob Hootenanny from Possum Holler just ran a 4.2, recovered four fumbles in one quarter and has USC among his top 50 schools.
But I beg you to show up tonight and simply watch Downey as he does what he does one more time. You want an athlete who is the best at what he does, refuses to let his team down and has always put winning a game before any personal accolade, there’s one right in Columbia.
For only one more game. It will be quite a while before USC sees someone like him again, if ever. They just don’t make them like that very often.
Pardon me. I have something in my eye.
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The All-Tanner Team
“This is just a tribute.” -------------- TENACIOUS D Me and Ray Tanner go back a ways. His first year at South Carolina was my first year covering the team. As his 14th season dawns, he looks about the same while I’ve got a lot of gray hair, including some greatly disturbing ones in my beard. His team, naturally, looks completely different than the first one I saw back in 1997.
Although I doubt this team’s season result will be any different than what it always has been under Tanner – a winner.
Feel free to disagree, but after a great deal of perusing the old scorebooks and such, I believe I have the list.
The All-Tanner Team.
C: LANDON POWELL (2001-04): Hard to find a better defensive catcher, and he could flat-out rake it as well. He lived up to the hype.
1B: JUSTIN SMOAK (2006-08): School leader in home runs, RBIs and total bases. The first time he stepped in, I turned to my buddy and said, “Good God. That boy just looks like a ballplayer.”
2B: KEVIN MELILLO (2001-04): Four-year player who split time with some other distinguished all-stars, but anchored three College World Series teams with some slick fielding. Only bad part was that awful orange-juice stain of a mustache he tried to grow.
3B: BRIAN BUSCHER (2002-03): Yet another star off the junior-college pipeline. They ought to re-name it the Tanner Minor Leagues.
SS: DREW MEYER (2000-02): So many deserving candidates, but Meyer started from Day 1 and played for three years. Remember his first collegiate hit? Homer dented the right-field light pole down in Charleston.
OF: MICHAEL CAMPBELL (2003-06): Career chart-topper in games played, at-bats and second in hits.
OF: DERICK URQUHART (1995-98): One of Tanner’s first great players when he took the job. Urk could do it all – career average of .327, 20 homers his senior year along with 77 RBIs and 18 stolen bases.
OF: WHIT MERRIFIELD (2008-present): Talk about the heart and soul of a team.
DH: TREY DYSON (1999-02): Captain Clutch. I can still see that homer disappearing into one of the palmettos behind the right-field fence to beat Clemson.
SP: KIP BOUKNIGHT (1998-01): Duh.
SP: MATT CAMPBELL (2002-04): A tough decision, but three years ending in Omaha puts the strikeout artist ahead.
CLOSER: BLAKE TAYLOR (2001-02): The best of that three-closer run the Gamecocks had, it was automatic once the Blade came out of the pen.
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You Got Him, Now Use Him
“Cha-cha now, y’all.” ------------------- MR. C We now return you to your regularly scheduled lives … Marcus Lattimore smirked at the question and threw out a one-liner that would be etched on a plaque somewhere, if he was a quarterback from Jacksonville. Somebody asked how South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier closed the deal with his prized recruit, after a period where Lattimore was deeply concerned about the direction of the Gamecocks’ offense.
“He cha-cha’ed with my mama,” Lattimore said.
The comment drew a lot of laughter and sure made my personal quote Hall of Fame, because I remembered reading about how Spurrier danced with Lattimore’s mother, without music, during one recruiting pitch to the tailback. That little soft-shoe apparently erased Lattimore’s worries if he would be able to live up to his enormous reputation if he came to USC, because he committed on Tuesday and was scheduled to sign on Wednesday.
Steve got him. Now Steve has to effectively use him.
I’ve always been in Spurrier’s corner at USC, because he’s won more games than any other coach has in a five-year period and I took a realistic view of his chances for huge success at USC. Simply arriving wasn’t going to change over 100 years of futility – the guy’s a coach, not a magician.
But even I had to have my doubts after that horrendous performance at the Papajohns.com Bowl. One of my colleagues put it best when I asked him during the game, “How did this team beat Clemson?” and he responded, “This team didn’t.”
That one game destroyed more than a month of goodwill after the Clemson win and once again had fans fretting about the program’s direction. They were legitimate concerns – how could the same team play so well, finally seeming to have the offensive answers, in one game and then return to worse than before in the next?
There were several reasons, which we’ve discussed at length. But on Tuesday, nobody was concerned about that. They were only concerned about which school Lattimore would pick.
He chose USC, parting several gray clouds over the football offices in Columbia. Now Spurrier has got to keep the sun shining.
As in, tweak his offensive plan in order to fully utilize the gift he just received.
I think I’ve been around this site long enough for y’all to know I never buy into recruiting hype. I prefer to follow the lead of Boobie Miles in the wonderful “Friday Night Lights” – “Hype is something that ain’t real. I’m all real.”
In other words, I believe it when I see it.
I have seen it in this case.
The last time I felt this strongly about a recruit was when Stephon Gilmore signed. The time before that, it was about some half-pint from Chester who is currently shredding SEC basketball like a Cuisinart.
Lattimore can play some football. It’s not just the running, with a very impressive combination of speed and power, it’s the receiving. He can take the swing pass 5 yards to the side and already be seeing five busted tackles down the field.
USC has got to use that talent, not try to stick him in an offense where he’s going to be seldom used and never happy.
Spurrier has constantly fallen victim to his own past while he’s been at USC, often avoiding the run in order to throw, even when it’s not working that well. Then when he’s found a good mix of running and passing, he’ll lose his patience, chuck it downfield and hope he’ll see a repeat of Danny Wuerffel to Name That All-Star.
Looking at 2010, USC has great talent at the offensive skill positions, but there’s not much around to block for them. By numbers, sure. By experience and raw offensive line talent, no way.
The Gamecocks are expected to sign several offensive linemen on Wednesday, but the standard in SEC football has been to redshirt linemen during their first year, trying to get them physically ready to handle the abuse that’s coming their way. Not to say none of these guys won’t be able to play right away, but I’m sure the coaching staff would like to build for a full class of fifth-year seniors.
With the veteran linemen on the team, the Gamecocks won’t be able to have a lot of room to pass, and unless they find what allowed them to blow apart Clemson’s defensive line and can duplicate it for 12 games in 2010, won’t have much room to run. That’s why the system needs to be tweaked, using more screens, more sidelines, more swings, more speed.
Lattimore can do that. Jarvis Giles can do that. I’m sure Kenny Miles would be receptive to doing that although he’s fine at bulling through a line, just as Brian Maddox is. In short, with so many rights, how can trying a new approach be wrong?
I have no idea if Lattimore will be as good as his rankings. I’ve seen him play a few times and have never figured him to be another player off the Byrnes assembly line, i.e., a product of the secondary-destroying offense the Rebels have perfected. He’s always been the kind of player that I’ve looked at and thought he was going to be a success, no matter where he went and what system he played in.
The Gamecocks got him. Now they must use him.
Correctly.
Just like last week, USC fans will wake up on Wednesday thinking, “Did that really happen?” Yes, USC beat No. 1 Kentucky last Tuesday and yes, USC nabbed the top-rated running back in the country this Tuesday.
The Gamecocks followed their win over Kentucky with a win over Georgia. Spurrier has a much longer period to wait before he can prove he’s ready to follow up Lattimore’s commitment with an offense that is tailored to suit him.
After five years of struggling to move the ball, the mother of a recruit isn’t the only one who needs to be swept off her feet.
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Packing It In
“I think it’s time we stop, children, What’s that sound, Everybody look what’s going down.” ---------------- THE BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD
The country is locked into the worst financial depression since the one that popularized the term.
The death toll in Haiti is at 70,000 and rising after a massive earthquake.
Global warming is soon going to make us all have to walk around wearing 1,000-block suntan lotion.
I have several friends who just lost their jobs.
There are only two Beatles still alive.
Two young athletes, Jeron Lewis and Gaines Adams, died in the prime of their lives and careers from a problem that has felled several young players and seems to have no clue for detection or a cure to stop it.
Try as I might, I can’t forget about her.
Clint Eastwood may never act in another movie (but will probably still direct).
My mother still won’t talk to me about a previous blog I wrote mentioning all of my sins (and this one ain’t going to get me any extra birthday presents).
North Carolina is the defending national basketball champion.
And the Yankees won the World Series.
Over 5,000 Americans have been killed in an ongoing war that seems to have no purpose and no resolution.
The toll on the Southern Connector was raised 25 cents.
Tim Riggins no longer has any high-school eligibility on “Friday Night Lights.”
Jimmy Buffett is playing a concert in Columbia.
After Tiger Woods fell, it seems as if no athlete can ever be unscathed (which is why I keep thanking Dale Murphy).
I’m at an age where my heroes and idols are dying by the gross.
I bet a double-or-nothing kiss the other night and scratched on the 8-ball, losing the kiss and the previous bet where she would have had to wear a Duke T-shirt on our next outing.
My knee still hurts whenever there’s a sudden climate change.
It seems as if we have no politicians who truly have the will to change things, or if they do, they are opposed by the venom of the other side and not allowed to.
There are too many people who still think the best answer for every argument is to pick up a loaded gun.
Technology can build a telephone that can completely run your life, but cannot design a completely safe airplane.
And yet, we could gladly welcome all of it.
If only Eric Mack had come to South Carolina (sob).
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UT's Loss May Be Gamecocks' As Well
“You talk too much, You never shut up.” ----------- RUN DMC So The Lane Kiffin Era ends after 14 months, 13 games, seven wins and at least six NCAA recruiting violations. I have to say I’m a little disappointed, because as much of a cannonball as that guy was, he was great for copy, even when the writer is on the beat of another school.
I have no idea why Tennessee students acted the way they did last night, rioting and screaming curses at Kiffin. Maybe in their yet-to-mature heads they can’t grasp the fact that Tennessee football under Kiffin was becoming known more for being a punchline than a knockout. It only took him a few months to publicly snipe at the heavyweight coaches of the SEC, which in turn got them all to bind with the common mission of muzzling that damned fool up on Rocky Top.
He’s gone, off to USC West for a better job, albeit one that may be in for a turbulent few years. The scuttlebutt is that Pete Carroll ditched Southern Cal before the NCAA axe was about to fall, and with Ol’ Kiffikins there to offer his own brand of, ahem, “coaching,” the NCAA may as well move a branch office to USC’s campus.
(Side note: I wonder if Kiffin’s third child, the infamous Monte Knox, will be re-named. Somehow, Monte Compton or Monte South Central doesn’t have the same ring to it.)
But you didn’t read this to hear more witty jabs at Kiffin, who’s as poison to a program as his wife is whiplash-inducing gorgeous. Here’s what the move means for South Carolina.
Trouble.
Tennessee was just getting into the slide of becoming a pick-em every year on the Gamecocks’ schedule. The Volunteers were obviously not the ones of your father, who saw Peyton and Peerless run over the SEC in the late 1990s and then saw at least a winning team in the early 2000s.
That was good for USC. The Gamecocks, with a few more years of strong recruiting and a game or two improvement every year, could get to the point where they’d be picked ahead of their customary fourth or fifth in the SEC East. Kiffin could be one of the best recruiters in the country, but he still hasn’t proven he can coach, which is why no one could look at UT and say, “That’s a future SEC champion.”
I have no doubt the Gamecocks will enjoy a short-lived run of success against UT, perhaps poaching a few recruits who were just dumped on in front of the entire nation and maybe beating the Vols next year and the year beyond. After that depends on who takes over the team.
And that’s where it gets problematic.
First off, athletic director Mike Hamilton needs to be drawn and quartered for the Kiffin fiasco. He’s the one who offered an unproven kid who was born with a red-and-pewter spoon in his mouth the sun and the stars to come to Tennessee, then somehow defended the guy when Kiffin, the propeller on his hat spinning madly, falsely accused Urban Meyer of cheating.
If Hamilton manages to stay employed, he has no choice but to hit a walk-off grand slam to win the World Series, never mind a home run. That kind of under-the-gun pressure may get a terrific coach at Tennessee, which would not be good for Tennessee’s opponents.
Early names have already put Will Muschamp on the radar and a guy who I implicitly trust because he’s from my hometown said that UT has already contacted Phillip Fulmer about being AD or coach, but not both. That’d be nice for the university, since there was no question of Fulmer’s loyalty to the school, and it would bring one of the best personalities of SEC football back to the league.
I have no doubt that Tennessee will make a great hire and eventually the Vols will return to glory. The program is too big and too powerful to stay dormant for long.
Whether it’s at USC’s expense is the problem. Even with the Papajohns.com Bowl debacle fresh in everyone’s heads, USC was looking very good for next year. Returning talent and a nice recruiting class, combined with how the rest of the division was looking, had the Gamecocks sitting in an unusual spot.
They should still be there once the summer rolls around and preseason talk heats. The question is how long will they stay. Meyer’s flip-flopping at Florida won’t change the first year A.T. (After Tebow) and if Georgia doesn’t find a quarterback, it’s in trouble. Kentucky has never been a constant concern to USC and Vanderbilt, although it’s signing a strong class, is coming off a dreadful season.
Tennessee is the only team left. While the new coach may not make that much difference in Year 1, the right new coach will have them on the upswing in Years 2-3. Considering the hiring process that put Kiffin in the coach’s office, I wouldn’t say it’d be out of the question for UT to go after another “pirate” – Mike Leach.
The Gamecocks, I presume, will wait along with everyone else in the next few days to see who UT will hire. I have a feeling that Steve Spurrier is at least a little angry at Kiffin for bolting, not because he wants the guy around, but because he’s deprived of a chance to even or top that 0-1 record he’s got against him.
The right guy at Tennessee eventually puts USC back into its familiar perch. Another Mr. Wrong opens the door a little further for the Gamecocks to squeeze through. If they’re ever going to do it, they need to start now, because this opportunity won’t last for long.
It’s why having Kiffin around was, to an opponent, comforting. He might win a few games every year, but nothing serious. Let him fire his salvos from the top of the mountain while the rest of the league crouched at the bottom, calmly getting ready for the assault as soon as Kiffin began self-destructing. It was never a question of “if.”
It is now. If Tennessee hires a great coach, when will USC begin feeling the fallout?
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An SOS for SOS
“When life is hard, you have to change.” ------------------------------- BLIND MELON As longtime followers of this space know, I have never coached a down of football, which is why I’m usually very careful about criticizing play-calling. I’m not even that good in PlayStation football – I win because I play with the 1989 49ers, who only lost games when they chose to (but I am one of the greatest Tecmo Bowl players of all time). But as the fallout from the Papajohns.com Bowl continues to sting like venom thrown from a spitting cobra in the sky, I feel compelled to offer a suggestion.
Looking at what has happened in South Carolina’s last two football games and what the Gamecocks will return next year, you, Steve Spurrier, need to change your offensive approach. USC’s defense is keeping it in a lot of games and should continue to do so, but the Gamecocks cannot win games without points.
I get it, I do. Ask my family, friends, employers, anyone who’s ever known me and they’ll all tell you that I’m the undisputed king of bullheadedness. When I make up my mind that something’s going to work the way I want it to, it will.
Or if it doesn’t, I sure won’t admit it.
This is why I always feel a kinship with you, coach. We’re both too stubborn sometimes to know the right answer is not the one we chose, yet we refuse to do anything about it. Because we are both infallible in everything.
The Gamecocks looked terrific against Clemson and horrible against Connecticut. Not coincidentally, they ran the ball against Clemson and not against Connecticut.
You won at Florida with the pass, as you did at Duke and with the Tampa Bay Bandits.
This ain’t Florida. Never will be.
Run the ball. I’m not saying never pass, but de-emphasize it.
Heavily.
The Gamecocks gave up on the run way too soon against Connecticut. Kenny Miles, Brian Maddox and Bryce Sherman combined for 10 carries. Against Clemson, Miles and Maddox combined for 35.
Again, non-coincidentally, USC rushed for 223 yards against the Tigers and 76 against the Huskies. And I don’t believe it’s because UConn’s defense is that much better than Clemson’s.
The Gamecocks had an awful day in Birmingham and it’s getting worse since. When Moe Brown, one of the nicest kids that’s ever been around this program, is screaming at the receivers coach and then revealing he got caught packing a (legal) gun, you had a bad day. When Miles is Tweeting nasty comments – not that I agree with that Twitter garbage anyway (what the hell happened to privacy?) – you’ve got a problem.
So here’s the solution. Take a long, hard look at the offensive playbook, keep some of those beloved pass plays and junk the rest.
Because it is not working.
The Gamecocks stand to return Miles, Maddox, Jarvis Giles, Sherman and may add another recruit to that stable. Eric Baker, if his knee heals up, should be available by the time the 2010 season rolls around. They’ve got a running quarterback and another potential one, should Stephon Gilmore get more snaps.
They’ve got a trio of tall, speedy receivers in Tori Gurley, Alshon Jeffery and D.L. Moore. They’ve got plenty more pass-catchers who are bidding to get on the field and replace Brown.
Their offensive line is the weakest link. It’s losing two starters and it’s never been a model of consistency even with those two. The biggest problem is it’s still two years away, since the incoming class is going to be a whole lot of freshmen who need to sit, weight-lift and get ready for four years of SEC football.
Take all of those factors, remember the Papajohns.com locker room, and here’s what pops out – pieces of the same offenses that had Georgia Tech and Texas Tech combine for 20 wins this year.
Georgia Tech runs the triple option, which seems to be good for USC if it can get the blocking from the line. The Gamecocks definitely have the backs to do it, and for all of the snobs that turn up their nose at the look of it, just remember – it may be achingly outdated, but all it does is win games.
Plus, there’s new line coach Shawn Elliott, who just spent the past four years helping develop Appalachian State and Armanti Edwards into words synonymous with championships. He probably has a few ideas.
Then there’s Texas Tech, which you would love since the shotgun spread throws the ball so much. It would seem to benefit the weaknesses on the line – the big splits the Red Raiders use widen the defense to create running and passing lanes and give the QB a little more room to operate, since the ends have more ground to cover for a sack.
I say, take a little of both, combine them with what you’ve already got and try it. Admitting you were wrong only stings for a little bit.
Or so I’ve heard.
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Read, then think
“Think.” ------- ARETHA FRANKLIN I get it. You’re angy and looking to vent, and you have a right to. South Carolina was terrible, awful, pathetically bad at the Papajohns.com Bowl and you as a fan should be justifiably steamed that such a fine last month put up snake-eyes on its first roll at the table.
But calm down. Ignore the little chicken on your shoulder, the one in place of your conscience, that’s running in circles shouting, “The sky is falling!”
All is not lost.
I make it a policy never to act on anything until I sleep on it. This way, logic kicks in over the rivers of rage and I can present an informed front.
I have to have that approach. Unlike many of you, whatever I post on GamecockCentral.com has my real name beside it, not some handle. I can’t offer up barbs at whoever I feel behind the cloak of anonymity, nor do I want to. It’s part of the job – stay in the middle, scout both sides, present each.
So here it is.
The last game was bad. The season was not. The Gamecocks did exactly what I thought they would – and look it up in the archives if you don’t believe me – by finishing around .500 and going to a low-level bowl.
And at USC, that’s usually as good as it’s going to get.
Sure, you want more, as we all do. I’m still holding out hope the basketball team gets past this horrendous stretch because I have yet to cover an NCAA tournament game and really want to cross that off my list. A BCS bowl game wouldn’t be too bad, either.
But you can’t just look at what you hope will happen. You can’t just think with your heart and not your head. You have to take into account what has happened in all of the years before this one, what is likely to happen this year and then set a reasonable expectation.
This year, reasonable was exactly what occurred. The Gamecocks had questions at quarterback, receiver, offensive line, running back, place-kicker and defensive secondary before the season and questions on the defensive line during it.
I said in the preseason that 6-6 would be satisfactory and anything above that would be time for a parade down Assembly Street. Guess what?
You got 7-6 with a beatdown of Clemson and a radar-boosting win over Ole Miss. Unfortunately, the sixth loss was the last game and that’s what everybody has to remember during the offseason.
The bowl game stunned me, too. I turned to a friend who also covers the team and asked, “How did this team beat Clemson?”
He turned to me and said, “This team didn’t,” which says one hell of a lot.
You’re only as good as your last game and the Gamecocks couldn’t have beat themselves on Nintendo on Saturday. They were ridiculously bad, but as bad as they were, it doesn’t wipe away the games they won this season.
So as I typed up my post-game stuff while trying to unthaw my fingers, I knew what was coming. There would be anger, red-hot steam and boiling vitriol from several folks and all of it would be justified. That it had to come within a two-day stretch that featured a loss of a basketball player, a loss on the basketball court and the seeming loss of a high-profile in-state recruit iced the proverbial cake.
It’s why I held my tongue (and fingers) from replying to some of the nastiest threads, mentioning such well thought-out topics as firing Steve Spurrier and Eric Hyman and anyone who had the slightest bit to do with the Papajohns.com Bowl. Not sure how Hyman’s name ever got in the discussion – go look at the Dodie that’s opening this month and then the department’s books, while considering shutting up.
As for Spurrier, he has never a losing season at USC. The last guy to do that was J.P. Moran, who guided the Gamecocks to a 5-2 record in his only year on the job (1943). There have only been three coaches who were at USC for at least four years and never had a losing record – N.B. Edgerton (1912-15), Billy Laval (1928-34) and Spurrier. In terms of wins in a five-year period under one coach, there’s only one name on top (I’ll leave you to fill in the blank).
Of course we all want more because Spurrier’s never lost like this in his career. We can expect more than this year as well, looking ahead to next year and seeing what’s coming back. SEC champions? I won’t go there, but I can see how some of you could.
As Saturday segued into Sunday and I got back home (finding out some key knowledge on the way – a plastic trash barrel, when hit in the fast lane of I-20 while doing 90 in a Mazda 6, explodes on impact), I was pleased to see most of the hatred dying down. Hiring Shawn Elliott as the offensive line coach helped, as did the whispers of what may be the worst-kept secret in the state – come Feb. 2, all of you are going to be very, very happy.
But there will continue to be some pointed messages, which is the right of all of us. Freedom of speech and all that. Feel free to offer your opinions, suggestions, agreements, denials, etc.
Just please sleep on it beforehand.
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A Letter to the Leader
“Let me be your leader, Let me have control, The way I see it, It’s got to be right for you. I could be your pilot, Through the stormy seas, The way you see it, It’s just a case of trust in me. I could be your hero, I’ll be your piece of mind, The way that I see it, It’s got to be good for you.” ----------------------------- NAZARETH Devan Downey, it is time. Time for you to take control over your team, and make no mistake, it is yours. With Dominique Archie officially gone for the season and South Carolina in a state of trembling apprehension about how the rest of this year will go, you must take over. Because that’s what leaders do. And that is what you most certainly are.
Yes, it’s unfair to ask you to be the leading scorer, creator, driver, finisher, big-shot taker and big-shot maker. But as you know from a boyhood in Chester, life ain’t fair.
This cannot be a season of excuse, where the Gamecocks go merely .500 or slightly better and can hang it on, “Well, if Dominique was there …” There is talent on this team, perhaps not as much as before, but there is more than last year.
What it has to do, to use a term avoided by Darrin Horn, is step up. And it starts with you, Devan.
Your scoring has been fine this year. Your ball-handling has not. It’s only going to get tougher, too, with opponents knowing you’ll be the go-to guy and locking down on you. That’s what Wofford did, that’s what Clemson did, and that’s where two of the three losses on the schedule have come from.
I wish I could list something specific for you to do to improve it but you and I know you’ve forgotten more about being a point guard than I’ll ever learn. I’ve known that since the first game I saw you play, back when you were a sophomore at Chester High School with your hair in braids -- Allen Iverson without the ink or the attitude.
You’ve been Superman so many times that when you turned back into Clark Kent a few times this year, it was so unbelievable that I brushed it aside as a bad day. But the bad days kept accumulating, and it all came to a head during the Wofford disaster.
USC rebounded and beat Furman to finish the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule 8-3. That’s not too far off from where the “experts” predicted the Gamecocks would be. You, Devan, scored 16 with eight assists and seven steals to wipe out four turnovers. That is a wonderful game.
Now you’ve got to keep it up, through the final 19 games of the regular season, through at least one game in the SEC tournament. Any games after that are products of what you do.
If you play your game and display the courage and commitment to save this season, your teammates will follow. They have been around you too long not to know of the intense desire to succeed that burns within you.
You’re never going to get another chance to do what you’ve always dreamed of doing. The NCAA tournament is still there. No team has ever been eliminated from an NCAA berth in December and that’s not going to start this year.
This team has one chance, one more year to play with you at the helm. That chance may not get any better for a while than it is right now, even with Archie on the shelf. The youth that will define this team next year and the year beyond could by itself keep the Gamecocks from taking that next step.
Which is why the rest of this year has to be yours, and why you must put this entire team on your back and carry it forward. It would be an absolute disgrace for you to end your spectacular career without ever knowing what it’s like to play in the NCAA tournament.
This team may not be good enough to get to the NCAAs, even with you playing at an All-American pace. I don’t think that’s the case, but the other teams in the SEC may not agree with me.
Your own coach said that Furman was unquestionably your best game. You said you don’t feel any pressure to live up to that every night from here on out.
Those are admirable things to say, but they were coming just before an eight-day layoff. Once the Gamecocks return on Dec. 30, Devan, you will again have to be this team’s leader.
You’ve never needed it before, but I’ll wish you luck anyway. This is your season, your team, your dream.
Good luck.
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David Cloninger. David is a full-time staff writer for GamecockCentral, and covers Gamecock football, men's basketball, baseball and recruiting. He may be reached by email at david(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.